Time Travel Isn't for Amateurs
by Me
Summary: Doc Brown's youngest stains Richard's coat in 1912; Doc insists on getting it dry cleaned, but a coin falls out from 1979; then it gets more confused, as they jump back and forth & eventually end up with 2 of Richard & Elise


A/N: I had a little idea for "Somewhere in Time" about Elise somehow able to come to 1980 to be with Richard that never really came to anything. However, I did want to make a better ending, and had this idea, as it also explains the whole pocket watch thing.

I'll likely never use it otherwise, so feel free to use the continuometer in your own fics. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if someone had a similar idea on their own, I haven't read a lot of these. With Jules and Verne, I forget what they looked like in the last BttF, but with different kids' growth spurts anything close is possible; two of my cousins who are brothers were the same size while 10 and 7, respectively. Finally, I haven't seen either in a long time, so forgive me if things are a bit off; I tried to get everything right, but frankly, I thought I had it finished myself before I realized there was a chance for a time-shattering paradox, and...well, you'll see. Let's just say this stuff is tricky, so I hope everything flows well - and correctly. :-)

Also, one website referred to Richard as Reese so that's what I used – now I've changed it back, so is someone wants it to be Reese, you'll have to pretend. (Yes, it could have been Wikipedia's fault :-)

Time Travel Isn't for Amateurs

"Oh, terribly sorry," Verne Brown said. The nine-year-old had been carrying plates back to the kitchen, and spilled leftovers on a patron of a very elegant Chicago hotel. "Here, let me." He used a napkin to try and wipe gravy and such off, and the man tried as well.

"Verne, what are you doing?" Jules complained to his younger brother. The twelve-year-old walked hastily over from where he'd been clearing a table. "You have definitely inherited Father's absent-mindedness."

"So? I'm cleaning it up." Verne said, despite the fact there was still an ugly smudge; which he'd made larger. "Sort of," he muttered.

Jules scolded him. "What does Father always say?" He whispered in Verne's ear, so none of the others could hear. "'If you ever get separated from us, remember to leave everything the way you found it.'" Jules took the man's coat. "My brother and I will take it to the cleaners, and return it later this afternoon, we promise."

"We will?" Jules nudged him. "I mean, we will, I promise. It will be just as if it had never been stained," Verne said.

The gentleman let them take the coat, smitten with thoughts of the lovely lady he was with, and so not paying too much attention; he would await them in the lobby at five o'clock, as he and she had a fabulous dinner planned; in fact, she was considering asking him to marry her. They could enjoy another beautiful stroll in the meantime.

The boys hurried out into the lobby with the folded coat, only to see their mother and father, Clara and Doc Brown - the latter of whom was a famed scientist who had invented time travel back in 1985 - and Marty McFly, who had helped him and been on numerous adventures with him. "Where have you two been?" Clara asked in a slightly scolding voice. "And, whose coat is that?

"Well, Mom, Dad, we just kind of talked our way in there by pretending to be busboys," Verne said shyly, knowing it was wrong.

"It's such a fancy place, we thought it would be kind of a cool adventure," Jules stated.

"Yes, and they would have been fired quickly," a hotel manager harrumphed.

The boys blushed. They'd been allowed to meander for a short time, but of course, they'd wanted to have an adventure. "It was okay, till Verne spilled food on this man's coat. We said we would take it to the dry cleaners. He let us," Jules finished.

Verne explained. "He didn't care. He was in looooove," he said in a mocking voice.

"Verne, you're just too young to get it yet," Jules shot back.

Doc Brown corrected his oldest son. "Remember that I, too, thought the idea that I could fall in love was preposterous, until I was much older. It is possible your brother has that, among other traits, whereas you hold different traits of mine. Did the gentleman check the pockets?"

"No," both boys said.

Doc Brown carried the coat while checking the many pockets. "Well, I shall do so. Remember what I always say. Leave things exactly as they were. Now that Marty is done with the interview he wished to have, we'll have a slightly longer layover, until we give the coat back. Still, that should not be…" A coin fell out of one pocket, and rolled into traffic. "Quick, did you see which pocket that fell out of?"

When Jules pointed, Clara pulled a 1910 coin from her purse. Doc held up a hand. "Keep it, Dear, until we get the coat back. Then we shall put it in the exact pocket in which it was left. That way, we have nothing to fear from a dry cleaner taking it or losing it." He turned to his boys as they walked to the dry cleaner. "You see, as I have taught you, any little thing can alter the time-space continuum. Most things will not alter it severely, but some could. That is why my latest invention, which I will show to you, is so ingenious."

"What is it?" the boys asked.

Doc Brown explained after he dropped off the coat and ordered it done by four that afternoon. "It is a continuometer. If something drastic has been done that we do not know about, it will register; then, something can be done to go back and fix it. That way, we can no longer be trapped, as Marty and I almost were when that sports almanac was taken back to 1955." Jules said he recalled hearing that story, as they met back up with Marty.

They did some sightseeing, and then returned the coat to the man at the appointed time. "So sorry for my boy's clumsiness, but, you know, boys will be boys," Doc said.

"That's quite all right," Richard – the man whose coat it was – told him. He considered the light lunch he and Elise had had. "I hadn't thought much of it. You know, I wondered if I might never find love. I hope you don't mind me saying, but you look like you married when you were older." Doc said he had done so, not wanting to alter things one way or the other for Richard. "But, the last few days, I've felt, well, like I don't remember my past at all, like being with this special someone is my whole life. And…I don't know, I'm probably sounding crazy. But, somehow, I just felt you'd understand, too."

Doc simply said, "Your future is what you make of it." He knew that saying much more could push the man toward or away from marriage, and he knew too little about this time; and nothing about this man or the woman he was with. So, he was being very careful. Even when meeting – but being careful not to look at - his own past self, in 1955, Doc Brown had only said he, too, had pondered the same things his former self had.

The continuometer had read 100%. Marty was too busy explaining what he thought had happened to cause the Cubs to take until the year they had come from to win the World Series again, including having met with someone who would soon own Chicago's Federal League team, the one that first had used Wrigley Field. Indeed, the probability of their not winning a pennant in 70 years itself was astronomically high.

But, as they traveled back to 2015 Hill Valley, California, Doc Brown noticed something was amiss. "Great Scott," he said as they walked into Marty's home, and Doc studied the machine. "Marty, look!"

Marty took a look. A digital readout on a laptop-sized device – a device with a sensor tuned to read the space-time continuum and the flux which had occurred from their previous travels – was fluctuating in the 90s, much more wildly when they checked the local readout from the place they'd just been, which was the Chicago area. "I don't understand, Doc. That can't be a thermometer."

"No, it's a continuometer; it registers changes in the time-space continuum."

"So, what do those changing numbers mean?' Marty inquired.

"They mean there have been changes to parts of the continuum; not major as the number isn't going down any more, but ones that are presently being worked out." He saw a blank look on Marty's face. "Remember the Star Trek episode with Edith Keeler, where they had to decide if she lived or died?" He did. "When the wrong thing happened, poof. Everything about Earth history changed. This device would have quickly gone to zero, in the localized and general areas. Nothing would have been the same."

"Like when Biff had the almanac," Marty realized.

"Precisely; although that change was more localized, we would have had more warning with this device. It shot down from 100% when we were over Chicago, then came back up when we got back to Hill Valley and got a general readout, with them still fluctuating a little now. When Biff took the almanac, of course, the waves kept growing."

Marty nodded, trying to get his head around it. "I didn't…Doc, I couldn't have said anything to affect things, could I?" he asked worriedly.

"I don't think so."

"Didn't you say that was for something, too?" Jules asked. He pointed to a place where a yellow or red warning light could come on. It was not lit.

"Yes, that is the light that tells there is a chance – yellow – or a certainty – red – that a time shattering paradox could occur. Apparently, that is not a problem. But, with the numbers fluctuating like they are, I am still concerned, as the waves we have created in the continuum could still cause problems." First, Doc ordered, "Jules, look around, see if anything changed." Marty's family wasn't home, but it appeared he still had the same family. "Verne, check the sports almanac."

As they did this, Doc went back to the Star Trek episode.

"What the writers of that episode never thought about was a seemingly homeless man who shot himself with a phaser. It seems his disappearance had no effect, or almost none. Let us say he had days to live. This device would have said nearly 100%, although there will usually be minute differences. I would not be so concerned if this device didn't read 100%, but the fluctuation is troubling. Now, to your question, I was with you, so I know you were okay, Marty. Boys, are you sure you did nothing else in that hotel?"

They were, and everything was the same in that room, except one towel that had been hanging in the kitchen was green, not blue. Plus, Chicago hadn't won the World Series over Miami this year, because Miami was a National League city – they pointed to their World Series wins in 1997 and 2003.

"Hmmm, Jules, get the digital camera. I am going to take pictures of this device and the number on it, as well as the kitchen towel." Jules did, and Doc took the picture, and then printed it out on a computer. "We will keep these with us, and attempt to determine how to restore the timeline. Everyone, back to 1912!"

They got back to 1912, as Doc explained the plan. "Clara and I will have dinner with the man and his girlfriend, or at least talk to them. Marty, take my boys, and walk along the path we walked, notice if we might have accidentally dropped something."

"Like the coin," Verne remembered as they split up.

Jules scoffed. "Come on, Verne, what difference can one coin make?"

"No, your brother's got a point, Jules," Marty said. "Suppose it was already 50 years old. He sells it in the future, has just enough to buy a team, or even travel and scout a player, and he changes baseball history. I've learned from my time with your dad a lot can change with just one little thing. So, that could accounts for the changes we saw."

"Oh, all right." Like many older siblings, he liked to seem smarter than his younger sibling, but relented. "Dad says you think outside the box more than me." As Verne began looking, though, Jules complained, "But, why would he clean out all his pockets and leave that one coin in there when it was so valuable? It makes no sense."

A policeman spotted them. "Looking for something?"

"Uh, yes, Officer," Marty said. "Jules and Verne here lost a coin, and their father is very stingy. He said we should try to find it if we can, now that the traffic is much less in the evening. I don't know if you found one, but I'm sure you've met that type."

"Yes, I have," the officer grinned. "In fact…someone brought one to me as I walked my beat earlier. But…what year was it?" He was very puzzled, and tried to figure out…had the fellow who brought him the coin seen the year right? Had he himself seen it right?

"I don't know. It wasn't much. But, he grew up really poor, so little things, to him, are worth more," Jules trailed off. He knew that Marty's excuse was perfectly sane, the absolute correct approach to searching for something like this lost while time traveling.

He was glad he had Verne along when the officer pulled the coin out to look at it again. Then, he showed him the coin. "Well," the officer hesitated, "I didn't even know what to do with it, but your names just made me chuckle and think of it. I mean, it's not from the future, I'm sure, but I just wondered how…"

"Great Scott!" It said 1979. Jules was nonplussed.

Verne, as expected, came up with something. "Dad's book idea!" He hoped reaction to his exclamation would give them all time to think a second.

"Book idea?" The officer was confused. "I don't understand."

"He's never been published, but he always loved Jules Verne books," Verne said.

Jules decided Verne's idea was best for now, and feigned frustration. "I can't believe we almost lost that coin, of all the coins to lose."

Marty agreed, catching on quickly. "He wondered what could happen if he changed a coin to make it look like it was from the future, and people found it. You have to try anything to make an honest living sometimes. And, there's no crime in defacing a coin. As long as you don't try to pass it off as real."

"You're right." The cop looked as if a great mystery had been solved. It made sense – a man who had grown up very poor could try to make a buck this way, and it had only been a penny, so the stingy man wouldn't be losing as much if he did deface it; and, for all the officer knew, he was rich now, anyway. "Tell him good luck with the book," he said as he handed the coin back to Jules. "Don't lose it again, now."

"Oh, we won't," Jules and Verne said together before they and Marty walked back to the hotel. marty was totally confused, but knew Doc would have an answer.

Doc announced to Marty and the boys that he'd booked two rooms for the night. As they walked to them, he explained. "You're all my children, Marty from a first wife, Jules and Verne from Clara. There may be a love triangle between Richard, Elise – who proposed marriage to him this evening - and a business manager or something similar, from what I gather. I thought at first something that happened might have caused her to make a career decision, but she chose to leave the company to come back to Richard before our arrival in 1912," Doc explained as they got to the rooms. "Of course, it is possible that something was influenced. What did you find?" he asked as they all entered one room.

"We found this," Jules said, coming right out and sahowing him because, frankly, he had no words otherwise. Still, like the others, he figured his dad would have the answer. When Doc read "1979" on the coin and said "Great Scott," Jules admitted his confusion. "That's what I said."

Marty then explained about the book Doc was supposedly writing.

"A clever idea, believing I will test the reactions of people with it, to get accurate feedback on how characters will respond," Doc pondered aloud. "It would make sense; one can't say for sure how people would react because the idea is preposterous. Except for one very important thing. It has happened!"

"Could it be from one of us at a future time?" Clara asked, still trying to grasp how it worked.

Doc smiled graciously at her. "Good thinking, my Dear. Unfortunately, I do not believe so. Remember that if we come in the future, we will likely come on a different date to avoid confusion. Plus, we would return to fetch it once we knew it was lost. Even if we came back to today, there would have been some sign of our future selves' presence. And, there has been none."

Marty remembered from before what had happened. "Could someone have taken the machine like when Biff got the almanac, but gone forward, then brought the coin back?"

"I doubt it. Remember, Biff had likely heard it was a time machine. They wouldn't know how to set it. Even if they did, wouldn't they go back in time to change something, or get an heirloom they could then pass off as an antique?"

Clara brought up a point. "Maybe if they couldn't set it, they went forward by accident."

"Good point, my dear. And, if they went forward, it explains why the continuometer read 100% until we left." Doc suddenly recalled the pictures; he hadn't looked at them since they returned to 1912.

Marty pulled them out of his pocket. Despite having seen people fading out of photographs and going back in, other versions of himself, and numerous very odd things in his time travel, Marty was still able to sincerely say, "Doc…this is impossible."

"What is?" Doc looked at it; the numbers on the picture were jumping back and forth! "Great Scott! There could be an eternal state of flux."

"Is that another of those things that could destroy the universe?" Marty asked somewhat matter-of-factly.

"I'm not sure." He said nervously, "I only know it could cause mass confusion, as if a small strand in the continuum is misplaced. And yet…" He thought for a second. "There is another possibility." What was it? "That there is one person here, or more than one, who does not belong here. Perhaps they, too, have traveled back in time."

"Are you serious?" Clara asked. "Could that be...?" she muttered, thinking.

There was a knock on the door. It was Elise. "I…wanted to talk to you, Clara. Woman to woman. If you don't mind."

"Sure. Excuse us." They went into the adjoining room.

"What do you suppose that's about?" Marty asked.

"That proposal I told you of. After the proposal, Elise learned of my marrying when older, and my having an uncertain past when Clara met me. Richard said he'd revealed little of his past when we ate tonight. She may wish to compare Clara's experience to her situation with Richard. As long as they were to marry, and now do so, there will be no problem." Doc Brown studied the continuomoter and the photographs. "Apparently we are on the right track, the towel is the right color again, but the numbers in the photo are still in flux a little; perhaps becasue of her uncertainty. Someone here seems to have traveled back. The question is, how?" He, Marty, and the boys tried to fiddle with the continuometer for several long minutes.

Finally, Clara poked her head through the barely open dividing door. "May I see you and Marty for a second? Bring that …" she added slowly, unsure if she'd done the right thing.

Doc entered the room. "What is it, Dear?" he asked, holding the device behind his back.

"Well…I'm afraid I may have let something slip. About, well, being from 1885. She wondered how I looked so young. And, well, I told her you would explain. Because, I said it might relate to Richard's situation." Also, as she'd thought before Elise interrupted, she wondered if Richard might be the time traveler.

This was so new and confusing to Clara; they'd only recently gone forward to 2015 to get the train hover-converted, back to 1985 to see Marty, and then forward again to make sure everything was still all right. Her main concern had been for the young couple. She simply loved the idea of a good romance, and had felt that her expertise would help Elise. Elise, meanwhile, had felt – as Doc suggested – like she could confide in Clara about her impending marriage. After all, she didn't have any family nearby. And, after Eilse had begun telling Richard that he should get a new wardrobe, and they began talking, she found that he knew little of his own past, thus leading to Elise wishing to speak to Clara.

Doc Brown sighed, not knowing if he could trust Elise. Then again, she didn't know how it was done. And, this wasn't the time travel device. Finally, revealing this could tie in very well with the book idea, leaving it all a big game, if Elise wasn't the time traveler. Clara was right. He had to be certain of who – if anyone – was the other time traveler.

"Elise, what would you say if I showed you this?" Doc pulled the coin out of his pocket. "Notice the year." She studied it, then gave it back; he put it back in his pocket.

After a long pause, Elise said, "I don't know. It can't be real. It sounds like something from a play or a book; a great comedy or farce."

"I was faced with similar skepticism when my husband told me about time travel. Until I saw the model he had made," Clara remarked.

Doc agreed. He showed her the continuometer. "I can't explain this very easily. But, let us say I went back, and did something so that Lincoln was not killed. It might suddenly move down to 50%, because only half of what we came back to in 1912 would be the same. If I changed it so McKinley was not killed in 1901, it might register 85%, though. Much more would be the same. Just as a guess."

"What are you saying?" Richard knocked on the door, but Elise was unsure what to do.

"Richard loves you; I can tell, as a woman. He wants the two of your to stay together," Clara assured her. "Whether he is a time traveler or not."

Elise smiled, and opened the door for Richard. He'd asked where Elise had gone, and been told the two rooms Doc and the others had rented. He'd knocked on the boys' door, and been told they were next door. Richard and Elise embraced and kissed for a second.

"But…you are from my past?" Elise asked Clara finally. Clara nodded. "So…if I were to leave here and go with him, I could, correct?"

"No you won't," William said. He was Elise's manager, and had a love interest in her, as well. He had a gun and some rope as he stepped through where Richard had just entered. He quickly closed and locked the door. "She is leaving. But, with me."

"Never; you know I love Richard!" Elise insisted.

"Look, I don't know what your game is. But, you sound like a control freak," Marty said, before sneaking a glance at the continuometer. "Doc, look. It spiked up a little when Elise said she would go anywhere with Richard. Close to 100%. But, I don't understand. Why would things be close to 100% if someone was originally never supposed to be in 1912?"

"I don't understand…" Richard said, feeling faint and holding his head slightly, as one might before a small stroke. "Not supposed to be in 1912?"

Doc concurred. "Now it makes sense. Originally, Elise here may have left the traveling group anyway. Perhaps her remaining with Richard is the proper thing…"

As if to confirm Richard's concerns, Clara said, "Yes, Elise and you can remain together. She wants to stay with you."

"She…she will?" Richard breathed a sigh of relief for a moment, once again forgetting that he had a past somewhere else – or somewhen. They embraced.

William laughed and waved the gun. "I see what you're doing. You're trying to distract me, with this little charade about time travel. Well, I'm not buying it." He grabbed Elise, who kept holding on to Richard. "You'll let go, or people might start to get hurt. You probably made something that flashes shiny numbers and are trying to fool people with it. Elise here is my drawing card. Everyone, back up, against the wall. Elise, tie them up, so they can't get away till we are safely away from here. And, you are not jumping ship like you did last night." All the others began to do so, with William now in the middle of the room. He backed up till he was close enough to the adjoining room's door, yet with his back mostly to it.

Then, Jules and Verne rushed through and tackled him. Verne grabbed the gun as Jules, Marty, and Richard held the man down. Several stockings were stuffed in William's mouth to keep him from talking, and they tied him up.

"Great job, boys," Doc and Clara said.

Both quickly said "thanks." "I peeked to see what happened, and I saw his gun; he didn't see us, though," Jules said. "We wanted to wait till just the right time to jump him."

"You did it perfectly," Marty said.

"How do we explain to the police, without the time travel coming up?" Clara asked.

Doc explained that it wasn't a problem. "He'll be seen as mad if he goes to them once we're all gone. Besides, I don't believe he wished us harm. I believe he merely wanted to protect his interests, and that meant not letting Elise leave." William nodded in agreement.

"I'm a little concerned, though," Richard said. He'd been holding hands with Elise the whole time. "Do you…do you really know how…well, to travel in time? If so, could you take us to 1980? I know it's a strange question, but…I don't understand, but something just makes that year sound familiar now. It's almost as if…I'm free of something." William sighed and fretted, knowing it would take him quite a while to get free.

Doc suggested a little experiment. "Let's take them to 1980, and then show them the coin." Richard kept asking what he meant by a coin, but Doc refused to answer. "I have a theory. That somehow this coin contains something placed by someone long after I invented it."

Jules chuckled as they left the room, and then relocked the door. "It would be funny to hear what the police said if that man tried to tell them that." They left the gun.

They arrived in 1980, seconds after they'd departed from 1980 for 1912 the first time. Then, the coin was shown to Richard. He looked at Elise. "You're real. And…still here." He turned to the others. "But, that's not a special coin. It's just one that I must have left in my pocket. Because, I was going through them as I spoke with Elise, and I found a 1910 coin." Doc and Marty shared a glance, both eyes growing wide. "But, how?"

"Let me check the time train's logs." Doc looked – they had gone from Chicago on that date to 1912 as part of their recent journeys in Chicago. "Everyone, look." Doc explained that, "I believe the time stream picked Richard up as an accidental stowaway. One who may not have been able to make it otherwise, or, at most, could not have remained."

"Could not have remained?" Richard and Elise said at the same time. The group began walking toward the hotel.

"Correct. When we travel through time, the flux capacitor opens a path into another time. However, that opening closes. Another opens where we end up; again, it closes. When your mind was focused on 1912, something in your conscience was just barely able to grasp the time stream, and come with us through the wormhole, because we were nearby."

"Wow." Richard shook his head in amazement. "So…I think I've got a transdimensional headache just trying to grasp all this."

Marty gave him a sympathetic look. "I know the feeling."

"This is why time travel is so dangerous," he said, telling everyone but saving his most pointed tone for when he spoke to Richard. "It is a very complex process. Now, I've learned that something else can also impact it, though I'm not sure how." He thought for a moment, almost frozen like a statue while the others walk. Finally, witht he others half a block ahead, he snapped his fingers and deashed to catch up to them. "Of course. Marty, remember when I said that if you ever meet your former or future self, and look them in the eye, the two of you will faint? Clara, I believe I explained this to you, as well."

"I didn't understand it, but you told me," Clara said shyly.

"That is because the consciences are connecting somehow. One consciously goes through the time stream linearly. It is a natural progression. If you see your former or future self, the shock is too incredible. When Richard attempted to travel mentally, it might not have worked, except for one thing. At that very moment in time that your mind was focusing on that continuum, Richard, we were making the exact same trip. You, then, were able to latch on. However, mentally, anything that reminded you of 1980 would have caused the same shock that it would cause if I were to go back in time and look at my 1955 self, because of the break in linear time. It would have been like the snap of a rubber band. It is quite likely, that you could have done severe damage…."

Elise had been trying to get Doc's attention as he rambled. "Doc," she finally screamed, "Look at his hand!" It was fading.

"But, that is impossible. According to the continuometer…" He stopped, expecting to see that everything was okay, as it had been before they left. Instead, Doc gawked at it. A light glowed an angry red, with a "90" below it. "Great Scott! There is a 90% chance of a time-shattering paradox!" Doc shouted with alarm.

"A what?" Richard and Elise asked with bewilderment.

"It could destroy the universe," Marty explained, putting it in plain words.

"This is why I said, this is not for amateurs!"

Marty held up a hand. "Wait, Doc, I don't understand. If he doesn't go back in time, why can't we just take him back?" he asked. "Isn't that what causes that paradox? Like when my 2nd 1955 self couldn't be allowed to prevent myself from leaving 1955 the first time?"

Doc finally concurred. "No, that does not seem to be the paradox. Since we left for 1980 moments before now, he should be in 1912. And yet, it was fine before we left 1912."

An elderly man walked up to them as they entered the hotel. "Did you wish to examine anything more in the attic...what in the…?" Arthur was dumbstruck, finally choking out, "I think I need an eye doctor."

"No, you are fine, Richard simply has a rare condition," Doc said. "We need to be alone with him to treat…"

Arthur gasped again. "You are the woman in the picture!" he said to Elise.

Doc shooed the elderly man away. "Yes, now leave us alone, this is a very delicate situation." Arthur ran off. "Is there anything else you remember? Do you remember why you chose to focus so heavily on 1912?"

"Well, I tried once…I saw an old registry…" Richard was more and more faint; he had to sit down. However, oddly, he wasn't fading any more. It was as if things were in a holding pattern, though nobody could figure out why. "It had my name on it."

"What about before? Why did you start?" Doc asked.

"Well…there was this watch…an old woman gave it to me. I learned...it was a very lonely woman...it was Elise," he recalled suddenly, gaining more strength as he did so. "And, she asked me to return to her."

"So, you're the time traveler?" Jules and Verne said to Elise, mildly shocked.

Elise gasped. "I am?"

"No, not as you are thinking," Doc promised. "He said you did so as an older lady. Now it makes sense. Apparently, things were in flux because it was uncertain how Elise would spot the younger Richard were she to remain in 1912 and live out her life from there. She may have had some form of dementia, spotted the younger Richard, and spoken to him, thinking it was her husband. Then, when she found you, Richard, she would give you the watch," Doc said. "Except for one important thing."

"If that was the problem, she'd have had to give him the watch in the first place for him to be induced to try to travel in time." Marty finished for Doc, who nodded. "Which means just sending them back to 1912 restores things, because she can still be the older woman years later who gives him the watch. Right?"

Doc said that was true. "It is wise for them to live out their lives from 1912 onward. However, there is still the danger that she would not find Richard and give it to him in her future – that is, 1970 or so - even if we return her to 1912. Not only that, but her situation will have changed. If Richard thinks she is not a lonely woman, he may never choose to go back in time. Remember that anything she does to change that will cause him to start fading again, and eventually cause a time-shattering paradix. The problem is, Richard, since she is now in the future, she can't be an old woman in the past to give you the watch. Therefore, it is imperative that we return to the time she gave it to him. Elise must go into the past at some point, even if we place her further into the past later." He turned to Elise. "Do you understand?"

Sensing her confusion, Clara said, "You're an actress. It should actually be easy. I think what Emmett is saying is that you disguise yourself as an old woman, hand him this watch, and beg him to return to you."

"This seems frightfully confusing. Are you…sure that's what he's saying?" Elise asked, worry crossing her face. "I don't want to cause one of those…whatever he called them. They sound dangerous."

"I know, but trust us, I've been through it. It'll work," Marty assured her. "Doc'll go with you, I'm sure."

"Yes, Clara, if you don't mind, I want you to come, too. Marty, you come, but stay back, watching from a distance with Clara, Jules, and Verne. Clara, if something should happen, you will tell the younger Richard that he should try to find Elise."

Jules spoke up. "But, Dad, why did she give him the watch in the first place? If that's what prompted him to time travel, it doesn't make sense."

"He may have originally been mistaken for a husband she lost in World War One, or in the Spanish Flue epidemic. Some people mistakenly think themselves in another era," Doc mused. "Richard, on the other hand, was not tricked by his mind. He deliberately attempted to override that which causes our minds to exist in a linear path, that same mechanism which gets shocked when one sees his or her former or future self."

Elise began to dress herself up in a ladies' room, with Clara there, too. Elise confessed, "When I proposed marriage to Richard, I was tired of the stage. I wanted to have a nice, tranquil life like you read about in story books. But, once he said 'yes,' I had nagging thoughts, like women do when they take such a big step. Like I told you about when I came to you in the hotel room." Clara nodded. "It is strange to consider that going forward to 1980 threatened Richard's past, and also erased my former future."

Elise spotted the earlier Richard (E-Richard), and handed him the watch, as planned. However, as Doc and the others watched her do this, something was wrong. Nobody knew who the woman was as she walked up to him. And, the chance of a time shattering paradox was only down to 57%.

Richard clenched a fist. "Of course, they told me that was Elise then; but now she hasn't been there for decades." He started to go, then said, "Wait, I can't talk to him, right?"

"Right, because that your former self," Marty explained. "See, you're getting the hang of this."

Verne pointed to another older lady. "Maybe she knows her."

"Verne...I think that's another Elise," Jules said.

Clara overheard and gave perhaps the most unusual scolding ever. "Boys, what have we always said; if you think you've spotted someone's double, you must tell your father right away so there is no paradox!"

"Oh boy; now what do we do?" Richard inquired.

Doc had a plan. "Boys, you must distract that woman; bring her over here." The boysran up to her. "Apparently, when it was decided to take them back to 1912, we created a situation where the older Elise would come here. What are the odds? Marty, follow me. We must keep the Elises and the Richards away from each other," he said as he left, Martry in hot pursuit.

"Hello, boys," old Elise (O-Elise) said. "At long last, I have found my husband," she said, intent on going to speak with E-Richard.

"Yes, look. Over there." Jules pointed while blocking O-Elise's view from Else (who was dressed as an old woman), so they wouldn't make eye contact. "That is your hsuband.

"Over here. Elise," Richard shouted. Both Elises looked at him, the younger one just as a knee-jerk reaction.

"Not you," Marty said, yanking E-Richard's head and saying, "don't look at him."

"But...he could be my brother - almsot my twin."

Doc sighed. _Amateurs!_ he said to himself. At lease Elise was doing a great job of avoiding any eye contact with O-Elise. "Look, that is a very lonesome woman who just gave you the watch," Doc explained. She was slowly creeping away.

"Kind of creepy, too; she told me to return to her,' E-Richard said. "Almost like she was pleading with me." He continued staring at the watch.

As Doc and Marty tried to convince E-Richard that he should, at some point, look into the history of Elise McKenna, O-Elise was walking toward Richard. "Are you sure that one's not my husband?" she asked again, pointing at E-Richard.

"Yes, Ma'am, we're sure," Verne responded.

"Thank you." She paused a moment. "You boys look familiar."

"We're like...guiding angels," Jules explained, knowing O-Elise might be pulling them out from her memory of when they helped her in 1912.

"You are such sweet boys," O-Elise agreed. She went over to Richard. "Please return," she begged him, as she handed him toe watch. Richard studied her as she left; once Elise saw her leave, she watched while the rest of the proceedings occurred.

Doc Brown was telling E-Richard, "was an actress in the Grand Hotel in 1912, by the name of Elizabeth McKenna. She was a beautiful woman. I believe her picture is there, isn't it?" he asked Marty.

"Oh…yes, it is. And, she told you to return to her?" Marty wondered aloud.

E-Richard nodded slowly. "She said to please return to her. It was strange."

Doc feigned puzzlement. "Hmmm, perhaps you are like some man whom she knew back then. She got away from public life for a while soon after that. It was probably the pressure. By now, she is old enough that her mind may be playing tricks, and she believes it to be 1912 and you to be that person."

"Yes." E-Richard paused. "That's actually not that odd a theory."

"She must have been so fabulous back then; a real sight to behold," Marty said wistfully.

Doc agreed. "Yes, true. It would be wonderful to meet her, would it not?" E-Richard agreed. "Ah, well, if you have no more questions, we shouldn't take up any more of your time. Good day, Sir." They left.

Once they got back together, Marty pointed to the machine. "Look, it's back to normal. Everything's fixed."

Richard smiled. He was normal again. "Sorry I put you through all this. I won't bother to ask you to talk to my one professor about mental time travel."

"Indeed you shouldn't; the fewer people who know it's possible, the better," Doc said. they bid Richard and Elise adieu in 1912, and returned to 2015.

Marty invited them in to have dinner with his family before the Browns left 2015. Their youngest, who was 17, spoke fondly of a library book she'd been reading. "It's about the couple that wrote that time travel play that was such a big hit in the 1920s," she said. "it's a great love story."

"What? Let me see that?" Doc Brown looked at it in an aside to Marty later. "Great Scott!"

"What is it, Doc?" Marty asked.

He pointed to the page. "Look. It says that he narrowly escaped death in World War One, and they then enjoyed a total of 65 long and happy years of marriage. And, Richard did help Elise the last ten years or so when she suffered from dementia of some type." he explained, "We were very fortunate here."

"How so?"

"Because, if Richard originally died, let us say in World War One, and the older Elise said soemthing to Richard that caused him to survive when we sent him back to 1912, it would have caused a time loop. Because, she could only be back there to tell him that if he had died originally. We could have fixed it, in fact the continuometer would have warned us right away, and I would have told him myself, to avoid the loop. Thankfully, that was not needed.

Lorrie, the 17-year-old, walked up to Doc and Marty. "Say, I was just wondering. You know that play they talk about, 'Change in Time?'" she asked. "I just realized, they credit an unknown writer with the idea. Something about a coin that gets lost and causes mass confusion." She glanced at Marty and said, "You didn't happen to have anything to do with that, did you, Dad?"

"Well, what's important is that they spent so much time together; it really turned into a great love story. And, what you love at your age, right? So much better than the stuff you read about now, like Elizabeth Taylor and her 15th husband," Marty said. "It's great to see famous couples that stay together.

Lorrie smiled. "Somehow, I have a feeling I should take that evasive answer as a yes."

"I guess that's okay. But, let me put it this way. If you ever want to go back in time to see them, let's pick a date well into the 1920s. It's just a little too confusing otherwise." They shared a gentle laugh together.

A/N: Since a reader was confused about the whole pocketwatch thing in "Somewhere In Time," let me explain how I see it. I noted in a PM that Doc was confused, too, and rightly so. I don't specifically say what caused that paradox.

However, Doc's speculation being used as an explanation of the pocketwatch is what I was going aftera; I'm sorry if that wasn't clear.

In other words, I posit, through Doc's supposition, that originally, Elise had a different lover after she left the group, one who died in World War One or the Spanish Flu. He looked a lot like Richard, one of those "separated at birth" things. Elise, sufferign dementia and near death, believe Richard is him, as she's going back to her past. So, when he takes it and goes back, he replaces this other lover in her life. A lover whom she is too depressed to meet in 1913, 1914, or whatever.

That's what Doc was trying to say, anyway, when he was speculating about her mistaking Richard for someone else. I just didn't think it flowed well enough to squeeze all of what I just wrote into that scene.


End file.
